Questions and Answers in Japanese Grammar for Permission

How do you ask for permission to do something? How do you answer when someone asked you for permission to do something? Again, let's check out the sentence patterns first...

Question:

Verb (て-form) もいいですか

May I do something?

Answer Yes:

はい、Verb (て-form) もいいです

Yes you may...

Answer No:

いいえ、Verb (て-form) はいけません

No you must not...

It's simple to ask for permission to do something. You just need to add the question word か (ka) to the "Verb (て-form) もいいです" sentence. Since this is a Yes/No question, the answer should begin with はい (hai) or いいえ (iie).

Let's take a look at the smoking example...

Question:

ここでたばこを吸ってもいいですか。

koko de tabako wo suttemo ii desu ka

Meaning: May I smoke here?

Answer Yes:

はい、（ここでたばこを）吸ってもいいです。

hai, (koko de tabako wo) suttemo ii desu

Meaning: Yes, you may smoke (here).

Answer No:

いいえ、（ここではたばこを）吸ってはいけません。

iie, (koko dewa tabako wo) suttewa ikemasen

Meaning: No, you must not smoke (here).

Note: Those inside the brackets can be omitted in the answers.

When Answering to Superiors/Customers

In the previous example, the tone is quite strong when granting or denying permission - "You may do something", "You must not do something". It's normally used by parents to children or teachers to students. If you are answering to your superiors, boss or customers, it sounds too strong and rude.

Therefore when answering to your superiors, boss or customers, you will normally use the Japanese grammar in request form like "はい、どうぞ Verb (て-form) ください" or "いいえ、Verb (ない-form)でください" to be more polite. For example...

Answer Yes:

はい、どうぞ 吸ってください。

hai, douzo sutte kudasai

Meaning: Yes, please smoke.

Answer No:

いいえ、吸わないでください。

iie, suwanaide kudasai

Meaning: No, please don't smoke.

Negative Answers in a Conversation

However, in a conversation, native Japanese don't like to say いいえ (iie) directly when they are denying something. They will likely say the following...

Answer No:

すみません。

sumimasen

Meaning: I am sorry. (Implied that you may not do so)

Answer No:

ここではちょっと...。

koko dewa chotto...

Meaning: It's not convenient...here

Asking Negative Questions with Japanese Grammar for Prohibition

You can also ask negative questions with the Japanese grammar "Verb (て-form) はいけません". In this case, you are asking for a permission to do something that you think it's likely to be prohibited.

"Verb (て-form) はいけません" means "You must not do something". Turning it into a question will become "Verb (て-form) はいけませんか" which means "Mustn't I do something?"

Question:

Verb (て-form) はいけませんか

Mustn't I do something?

Answer No:

はい、Verb (て-form) はいけません

No, you mustn't...

Answer Yes:

いいえ、Verb (て-form) もいいです

Yes, you may...

Note: There are differences in the Japanese answers and the English translations.

はい (hai) in Japanese actually means "I agree with what you said" and not simply a direct translation of "Yes" in English. Similarly, いいえ (iie) means "I disagree with what you said" and not directly translated to "No" in English. Therefore there are differences in the Japanese answers and the English translations when you answer "Yes" or "No" to a negative question.

Let's use the same smoking example to show how to ask and answer a negative question...

Question:

ここでたばこを吸ってはいけませんか。

koko de tabako wo suttewa ikemasen ka

Meaning: Mustn't I smoke here?

Answer No:

はい、（ここではたばこを）吸ってはいけません。

hai, (koko dewa tabako wo) suttewa ikemasen

Meaning: No, you must not smoke (here).

Answer Yes:

いいえ、（ここでたばこを）吸ってもいいです。

iie, (koko de tabako wo) suttemo ii desu

Meaning: Yes, you may smoke (here).

Note: Those inside the brackets can be omitted in the answers.

In the above example, the situation might be that you are about to smoke in a restaurant. As soon as you take out a cigarette, everyone is staring at you. That makes you think that perhaps it's prohibited to smoke in the restaurant. In this case, you can ask the negative question as above to confirm your thoughts.

In Japanese grammar, the question form for permission "Verb (て-form) もいいですか" is very important because it's a kind of respect that you show for others, especially in the Japanese society where the people emphasize a lot on courtesy and politeness.